01-12-2016, 10:38 PM
(This post was last modified: 01-12-2016, 10:50 PM by br1anstorm.)
Once again (and this is becoming a regular refrain...) thanks, gold_finger, for answering my puzzlement about using the terminal as user and/or as root.
In an earlier dalliance with PCLinuxOS, I do recall having to have separate user and root accounts, and having to figure out the difference between # and $.
This particular explanation was as clear and comprehensible as I could have wished - no need to look onward to the howtogeek:
So....... back to the main story, which is about trying to set up a multiboot on a Win7 laptop. My aim was to have both Linux Mint and Linux Lite installed, with a shared DATA partition, and both accessible via EasyBCD thus keeping the Win7 bootloader in place.
The first distro I installed was Linux Mint..... and I have successfully managed to do both the "chown" and the symlinks to create shared folders in the DATA partition linked to my 'home' folder. Again, kudos to gold-finger, and no cause for embarrassment or laughter: the command-line method worked like a charm.
Flushed with success, I then installed Linux Lite, and its Grub, on the next pre-prepared empty partition. All went well. I managed to add it into the EasyBCD menu as my third OS option along with Win7 or Mint. BUT......
I then found that although EasyBCD listed both Linux OSs, selecting Linux Lite took me only to the Grub2 bootloader screen offering Linux Mint (or Win7). No sign of Linux Lite...
I have now discovered that there is a limitation with EasyBCD (which its provider acknowledges). EasyBCD cannot - yet - handle or boot into more than one OS which uses GRUB2 . It can multiboot different versions of Windows. It can multiboot versions of Windows, and Linux distros which use Grub Legacy. But it can only "see" one instance of Grub2. Hence it is unable to boot into the Linux Lite I have installed, because I already have Mint, and its Grub2, in place.
This is an issue with EasyBCD and nothing to do with Linux Lite. I only post up this information in case it is of use or interest to others. I am surely not the only person who likes the idea of retaining Windows and its MBR and also having several Linux distros to choose from?
So for the moment I have paused. I suppose I could just bin EasyBCD and do what most people do for a dual or multiboot: install a Linux distro and allow its Grub2 to replace the Windows bootloader in the MBR, and then install as many Linux distros as I want, updating the initial Grub2 to enable booting into any of the others. I know already that if I go down this route, I would have to start by installing LL (because its Grub2 has been tweaked and needs to remain the "lead" bootloader) and then add other distros and do the "update-grub".
This means losing the Windows bootloader (though I have taken the sensible advice to make a backup). I suppose the other - possible? - way to do it, keeping Windows unscathed and still using EasyBCD, would be to somehow "insert" or add the Grub from the second Linux OS (Lite) into the boot menu of the first one (Mint). I don't have the expertise to know how to do this, and fear it may be more complicated than I would want.
The learning curve continues! If anyone feels inclined to comment, I'd be interested......
In an earlier dalliance with PCLinuxOS, I do recall having to have separate user and root accounts, and having to figure out the difference between # and $.
This particular explanation was as clear and comprehensible as I could have wished - no need to look onward to the howtogeek:
Quote:"Some Linux distros have you set-up a separate root user account to do admin activities in. Others like LL (and all Ubuntu-based distros) don't do that. Instead they have the main user (the one you set-up during installation) set-up to conduct admin activities as needed, on a per command basis using "sudo" at the beginning of the command. Then it asks for your password as confirmation that you really want to run the admin command. (If you don't close the terminal, it will remember the password for 10-15 minutes so you don't have to enter it each time when running a series of admin commands. When you close the terminal, the password is cleared and you'll need to enter it again if you decide to open terminal again and run more sudo commands.)"
So....... back to the main story, which is about trying to set up a multiboot on a Win7 laptop. My aim was to have both Linux Mint and Linux Lite installed, with a shared DATA partition, and both accessible via EasyBCD thus keeping the Win7 bootloader in place.
The first distro I installed was Linux Mint..... and I have successfully managed to do both the "chown" and the symlinks to create shared folders in the DATA partition linked to my 'home' folder. Again, kudos to gold-finger, and no cause for embarrassment or laughter: the command-line method worked like a charm.
Flushed with success, I then installed Linux Lite, and its Grub, on the next pre-prepared empty partition. All went well. I managed to add it into the EasyBCD menu as my third OS option along with Win7 or Mint. BUT......
I then found that although EasyBCD listed both Linux OSs, selecting Linux Lite took me only to the Grub2 bootloader screen offering Linux Mint (or Win7). No sign of Linux Lite...
I have now discovered that there is a limitation with EasyBCD (which its provider acknowledges). EasyBCD cannot - yet - handle or boot into more than one OS which uses GRUB2 . It can multiboot different versions of Windows. It can multiboot versions of Windows, and Linux distros which use Grub Legacy. But it can only "see" one instance of Grub2. Hence it is unable to boot into the Linux Lite I have installed, because I already have Mint, and its Grub2, in place.
This is an issue with EasyBCD and nothing to do with Linux Lite. I only post up this information in case it is of use or interest to others. I am surely not the only person who likes the idea of retaining Windows and its MBR and also having several Linux distros to choose from?
So for the moment I have paused. I suppose I could just bin EasyBCD and do what most people do for a dual or multiboot: install a Linux distro and allow its Grub2 to replace the Windows bootloader in the MBR, and then install as many Linux distros as I want, updating the initial Grub2 to enable booting into any of the others. I know already that if I go down this route, I would have to start by installing LL (because its Grub2 has been tweaked and needs to remain the "lead" bootloader) and then add other distros and do the "update-grub".
This means losing the Windows bootloader (though I have taken the sensible advice to make a backup). I suppose the other - possible? - way to do it, keeping Windows unscathed and still using EasyBCD, would be to somehow "insert" or add the Grub from the second Linux OS (Lite) into the boot menu of the first one (Mint). I don't have the expertise to know how to do this, and fear it may be more complicated than I would want.
The learning curve continues! If anyone feels inclined to comment, I'd be interested......